growing wild in the san francisco hills

The Ethiopian Adventure Begins

I will get a baboon fang.

At 20:45 GMT on Wednesday, May 16th, an Egyptair flight left from Cairo, Egypt to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Both of these countries are in Africa, by the way. Why does this matter, you ask? Who’s asking, I ask. I am, you say. Big deal, I say. Well can you just tell me why, you ask? Yes, I say. It matters because yours truly was on that flight, probably.

And I probably landed in Ethiopia at the most comfortable hour of 1:30 am GMT, where I was greeted by a crowd of friendly Ethiopians before riding a giraffe named Dorothy to a flea-free safari lodge where I fell asleep. After hours of delicious slumber, I likely woke up to the most wonderful all-day breakfast spread I have ever seen. I may or may not have spent the whole day in the dining room, finally leaving only when I was forced to because Dorothy was getting impatient and we needed to begin the journey to Lalibela.

That was a paragraph of lies. The one true thing is that I am probably in Ethiopia right now, breathing in the sweet Addis Ababa and/or Lalibela air and counting down the hours to drinking my next coffee. I will be in this country for about a week and have left compy at home, making sure to set out some food and water for it and my blog. No, I will not be blogging during my Ethiopian adventure, but I do plan on harvesting a good crop of blog fodder that I will use for upcoming posts. This trip will be a much needed rotating of the mind crops.

There is a slight chance that I won’t return at all, due to kidnapping by the organized baboon gangs of the Simien mountain or because I will have willingly joined these gangs. I also might be overcome with the Simien madness and feel that I have become “one” with the landscape and refuse to leave, clinging to the neck of the mule that we have rented and annoying the mule handler with my incessant weeping.

But, if everything goes well, I should be coming back next Wednesday with a baboon tooth necklace, as few flea bites as possible, mild digestive problems, and priceless memories.

Expected highlights of the trip are:

1. Not being in Cairo.

2. Seeing churches carved out of the living rock in Lalibela.

3. Using the phrase “living rock” as much as possible.

4. Seeing castles in Gondar.

5. Making countless Lord of the Ring references to Gondor.

6. Trekking in the Simien mountains and seeing baboons.

7. Claiming to see family members in and among the baboon herds: “Mom? Is that you!?”

8. Eating in a country that doesn’t have an endless culinary winter.

It should be a good trip, and I’ll probably write stuff about it when I get back. As usual, it will be fact-poor and reveal very little about what I actually did. See you later!

Oh Ren and Stimpy, one of the most repulsive and yet fascinating shows on television. I’m glad I could remind you of it so that I could be reminded of it. Ethiopia was great and there’s more on it to come!

From what I saw they mostly like to eat grass and occasionally show off their weird butts. One of them did threaten my boyfriend, but to be fair my boyfriend was smiling and that could have been interpreted as an act of aggression.

Tried to locate the maker of a special cough drop, in Toronto, called Efaco. The only reference Google gave me was The Egyptian Fabricating Company, just down the twisted narrow street from your room. More strange food and going baboon, that’s the Snotter I’ve come to know and love. Ethiopia = famine. They have food?

Haha—maybe I drop by the fabricating company and see if they have what you’re looking for? I’ve never snotted so black as I snotted in Ethiopia—that’s the dust from those gravel roads. It didn’t impair my taste buds and yes the food was delicious. More on everything to come…..

I did I did! Honestly I don’t know how I lucked into being able to do cool things. By all accounts I should still be working at McAlister’s Deli in Oklahoma. But the fun has to end sometime and I’m heading home to job hunt in just 5 days.

Enjoy your visit to an old civilization. Knowing you from past blogs you’ll amaze your audience and probably make in-roads in the field of baboon/human relations. If they’re talking, ask them about key to adapting to a changing environment. We need another view. Enjoy, Em.

I enjoyed indeed. The baboons are some of the strangest creatures I’ve ever seen up close….their eyes are so inscrutable. There was some pretty intense communing and I’ll definitely cover it in upcoming posts.

NOOOOOOO—–I only saw this just now! I’m already back in Cairo but would have LOVED to go for a beer. We had a wonderful time in Ethiopia and hopefully will be back again! Our favorite beer was Dashen—St. George was okay too. SOOOOO sad that I didn’t see this earlier but thanks for the invite!